Each episode we discuss the latest news regarding how to reduce the emissions of software and how the industry is dealing with its own environmental impact. Brought to you by The Green Software Foundation.
The Week in Green Software: Cleaner Energy with Molly Webb
September 28, 2023 • 46 MIN
TWiGS host Chris Adams is joined by guest Molly Webb from Energy Unlocked for another week in Green Software. In this episode, follow their conversation covering the latest G20 summit in New Delhi and a special announcement they made relating to renewable energy, a surprising move by Apple to now support Right to Repair and their reckons on the subject, as well as news from W3C’s first draft of Wed Sustainability Guidelines, and more. In this episode you can expect to be well informed on the going-ons of the past week and also upcoming events in sustainability and tech. Tune in for an open and exciting chat on The Week in Green Software.
Sci-Fi Fantasies with Anne Currie and Jo-Lindsay Walton
September 21, 2023 • 38 MIN
Joining host Anne Currie, is Jo Lindsay Walton, a research fellow in Arts, Climate, and Technology at the University of Sussex. Together they will explore the dreams of a green future inspired by Science Fiction and the practicality of these as solutions to climate change. This adventure will cover interdisciplinary approaches to viewing and tackling climate change and green software from angles of technology, politics, and especially literature. The discussion will touch on the Digital Humanities Climate Coalition and it’s toolkit that can help researchers minimize their carbon footprint, and will revolve around the ASCEND programme as well as other opportunities and missions to attempt the clean and efficient use of data centers in environments like our moon, and the complexities of protecting and cooling the servers, and also the aspect of polluting the moon.
Decarbonize Software 2023 Preview with Adam Jackson
September 14, 2023 • 30 MIN
In this episode podcast producer for Environment Variables, Chris Skipper is joined by Adam Jackson, the Community Project Manager of the Green Software Foundation to speak about the upcoming Decarbonize Software 2023 Event happening on November 16th 2023. Adam also talks about his work in building green software communities globally, promoting meetups for the Green Software Foundation and his love for . To register to be part of Decarbonize Software 2023 click the link below!
The Week in Green Software: Complex Carbon Accounting with Gaël Duez
September 7, 2023 • 46 MIN
On this episode of Environment Variables, Chris Adams is joined by fellow podcast host of the Green IO podcast Gaël Duez. Together they will cover the complexity of carbon accounting, new patents around carbon aware programming from Microsoft, and the flight of climate nerds from Twitter / X.com or whatever we’re calling it these days. Finally they share some exciting events from the world of Green Software including some upcoming events and we find out exactly why Gaël is a real-life bond villain!
We Answer Your Questions Part 2
August 16, 2023 • 46 MIN
Host Chris Adams is joined by executive director of the Green Software Foundation, Asim Hussain as they dive into another mailbag session, bringing you the unanswered questions from the recent live virtual event on World Environment Day that was hosted by the Green Software Foundation on June 5 2023. Asim and Chris start with a discussion on the complexities of capturing energy consumed by memory, I/O operations, and network calls in the SCI. They explore real examples of measuring SCI on pipelines of CI/CD, showcasing projects like Green Metrics Tool and the Google Summer of Code Wagtail project. The conversation shifts to the carbon efficiency of GPUs and their environmental impact, touching on the tech industry's increasing hardware demands. They also address the potential for reusing cooling water from data centers, considering various cooling designs and their impact on water consumption.
The Week in Green Software: Green Kernels
August 10, 2023 • 45 MIN
In this episode of TWiGS we delve into the intricate world of measuring software energy consumption, a topic vital for reducing our carbon footprint. Despite the strides in greening software, knowing how much energy software consumes remains a challenging puzzle, especially in the cloud computing era. Joining host Chris Adams are guests, Aditya Manglik and Hongyu Hè, graduate students from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. With their expertise in improving energy efficiency in systems, particularly operating systems, microarchitecture, and machine learning, we embark on a captivating journey to understand why quantifying software energy usage is intricate and what innovative solutions are emerging. Stay tuned as we amplify the geek factor to 11 and uncover the complexities of this critical field.
The Week in Green Software: Carbon Aware Spatial Shifting
July 26, 2023 • 38 MIN
Host Chris Adams is joined by Niki Manoledeki of Grafana and Ross Fairbanks of Flatpeak in this edition of TWiGS focused on Carbon Aware Spatial Shifting. They dive into Amazon's 2022 Sustainability Report, highlighting 19 AWS regions powered by 100% renewable energy, and explore videos from the Linux Foundation energy summit (links below). They also discover the importance of measuring carbon footprints in personal computing and IT, and learn about Kepler Power Estimation and the PLATYPUS Attack. Plus, they share some exciting upcoming events from the CNCF and some interesting Barbenheimer inspired portmanteaus from the world of Green Software!
The Week in Green Software: Open Data with Fershad Irani
July 19, 2023 • 33 MIN
In this episode of Environment Variables Chris Adams is joined by Fershad Irani, an independent web sustainability consultant and maintainer of CO2.js. They discuss topics like open data on the greenness of power, the wonders of HotCarbon, new projects from the cloud native computing foundation and the Green Software Foundation, and gzip.ai. Fershad shares his experiences working with the Green Web Foundation and the growth of the open-source carbon estimation library, CO2.js and there’s a cameo from Fershad’s cat!
The Week in Green Software: Data Center LCA with Stani Borisová
July 12, 2023 • 42 MIN
This episode of The Week in Green Software, features guest Stani Borisová; Expert Life Cycle Management at IVL and former researcher at RISE Sweden. Host Chris quizzes her on her expertise in data center LCA and they discuss interesting news tidbits to share from a global tour of Singapore, Norway, Germany, and America. They discuss how data centers might be unnecessarily using too much heat to cool themselves down, how Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act has perhaps not gone far enough and how Norway’s investment into oil and gas affects renewable energy resources for data centers. Finally we have some fantastic opportunities for you to be part of the Green Software Foundation!
We Answer Your Questions!
July 5, 2023 • 56 MIN
On this episode of Environment Variables, host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain as they dive into a mailbag session, bringing you the most burning unanswered questions from the recent live virtual event on World Environment Day that was hosted by the Green Software Foundation on June 5 2023. Asim and Chris will tackle your questions on the environmental impact of AI computation, the challenges of location shifting, the importance of low-carbon modes, and how to shift the tech mindset from "more is more" (Jevons Paradox). Chock-full of stories about projects implementing green software practices, and valuable resources, listen now to have your thirst for curiosity quenched!
Environment Variables One Year Round Up
June 29, 2023 • 27 MIN
Join us for a special episode of Environment Variables as we celebrate over a year of bringing you the best insights on Green Software! From open source's role in reducing software emissions to making green changes in organizations, carbon-aware computing, and more, we revisit the most captivating moments from our top 10 most popular episodes. Listen to snippets from our discussions with industry experts and dive into the world of Green Software, as we reflect on our journey, share valuable knowledge from our guests and hosts, and continue to raise awareness about the importance of Green Software.
The State of Green Software Survey with Tamara Kneese
June 21, 2023 • 44 MIN
In this episode of Environment Variables, we cover the State of Green Software Report with the Green Software Foundation’s very own lead researcher Tamara Kneese. She and host Chris Adams delve into the insights from the report including key topics such as the carbon footprint of crypto mining, regulations for generative AI, and the role of consulting firms in shaping emerging technologies. They also discuss how the results highlighted the impact of the tech industry, AI sustainability, and the need for responsible innovation. To find out just how interesting the results of the survey have been and everything in between tune in now!
The Week in Green Software: Code Green and Clean Power
June 14, 2023 • 41 MIN
Joining host Chris Adams on this episode of TWiGS is Nina Jabłońska, operations coordinator at Energy Tag and a master's student in sustainable energy systems. In this episode, we'll explore insights from the Linux Foundation Energy Summit in Paris, including Microsoft's urgent call for green coding and real-life examples of reducing computing emissions through cloud carbon footprint analysis. We'll also touch on employee activism at AWS, where tech workers stood up for climate action and better work-from-home conditions. Nina also tells us why sometimes she goes by Nina Jab%o%ska, and why Cara Delevingne and Keanu Reeves are the ultimate “carbon-free couple!”
The Week in Green Software: Open Source Innovations with Tom Greenwood
June 7, 2023 • 37 MIN
TWiGS host Chris Adams is joined by special guest Tom Greenwood from Wholegrain Digital, to bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. They discuss insights from The State of Green Software report, the cost reduction strategy of Amazon's Prime Video, Atlassian's sustainability program, Wholegrain Digital's Employee Activism Policy, the open-source Falcon LLM, and the innovative approach of heating swimming pools with servers. They also highlight upcoming events like the GSF’s UN World Environment Day Event (today!) and the London Open Source Data Infrastructure Meetup. Tune in for a deep dive into the intersection of technology and sustainability.
Fact Check: Colleen Josephson, Miguel Ponce de Leon & AI Optimization of the Environmental Impact of Software
May 31, 2023 • 41 MIN
This episode of Fact Check we ask the question, can AI always help us optimise the environmental impact of software? Host Chris Adams is joined by VMWare’s Colleen Josephson and Miguel Ponce de Leon to tackle this from their unique perspectives within the industry. They also talk all things sustainability in virtualization and networking and how this begins with green software. They also give us insight into how VMWare is tackling decarbonization within their own company.
The Week in Green Software: DIMPACT with Andri Johnston
May 24, 2023 • 29 MIN
Host Chris Adams is joined by Andri Johnston, Digital Sustainable Lead for Cambridge University Press and Assessment as they talk about using DIMPACT to calculate the carbon impact of digital publishing as well as news from the world of green software concerning one acronym; ESG and one portmanteau; LightSwitchOps. They also cover some upcoming events and we learn about Andri’s love of books!
The Week in Green Software: AWS & Scope 3 Emissions Data
May 17, 2023 • 39 MIN
Host Chris Adams is joined by the GSF’s Asim Hussain on this episode of The Week in Green Software. They discuss some interesting news about Amazon, AWS and their scope 3 GHG protocol emission data. We also find out how Python has got its Mojo back and we have a very exciting tool from Catchpoint WebpageTest for measuring site’s carbon footprint. Finally, some great green software events that you can be part of!
The Week in Green Software: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS!
May 10, 2023 • 35 MIN
Host Chris Adams is joined by Max Schulze from the SDIA (The Sustainable Digital Alliance) and they discuss three stories from the worlds of IaaS, PaaS and Saas! While these three acronyms are more than likely ever present in most digital people’s lives, we might not know about the environmental impact that they have. Chris and Max cover stories from the CNCF, Google, CIODive and OpenJS as well as upcoming events in the Green Software community.
The Week in Green Software: Data Centers in Space
May 3, 2023 • 39 MIN
Host Chris Adams is joined by Anne Currie on this episode of The Week in Green Software. They discuss the potential for data centers in space and how the use of potential death rays might be the way forward in powering these! Not only this, but sweeping changes in Reporting Law, and making Kubernetes clusters into Low Carbonetes clusters are covered too. Anne has a special report on her upcoming book and Chris finds his own variation of Boaty McBoatface!
Fact Check: Ola Fagerström and Microsoft's Surface Emissions Estimator
April 26, 2023 • 45 MIN
In this episode, we have a very special guest for an episode of Fact Check on Environmental Variables, Ola Fagerström from Microsoft Surface joins host Asim Hussain to talk about his work on the Microsoft Surface Emissions Estimator - an important tool that helps measure the carbon footprint of the device. Ola talks about how difficult it was to take into account everything from materials used, to manufacturing, to packaging, and even end-of-life disposal to give an accurate estimate of the emissions produced by each device; and how these principles can be applied to other areas of green software development.
The Week in Green Software: The Hidden Cost of AI
April 19, 2023 • 40 MIN
This week host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain and Environment Variables regular Sara Bergman to discuss the hidden costs of generative AI. What’s really at the tip of this iceberg and how far down does it go? They also discuss just how thirsty AI chatbots really are and developments in platform engineering. Finally, we share some opportunities for development from the world of green software.
The Week in Green Software: Generative AI and Cloud Zombies
April 12, 2023 • 26 MIN
Chris Adams is joined by cloud sustainability advocate and founder of Cloud Sustainably, Aerin Booth in this episode of TWiGS brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. On this episode Aerin provides his insight into the cloud to discuss cloud zombies, the effect that generative AI is having on the environment and exciting developments from Xbox (including a list of some of Aerin’s favourite nostalgic games!). We also touch on GreenOps and the future for green software developers.
The Week in Green Software: Netflix, Refurbishment and Anti-Greenwashing Laws
April 5, 2023 • 44 MIN
On this episode of The Week in Green Software, Chris Adams and Asim Hussain discuss the latest research on streaming emissions from Netflix and DIMPACT, the environmental impact of refurbished tech from Back Market, The European Commission's Right to Repair Law and their proposal for an Anti Greenwashing Law which is being echoed across the channel with the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill. Asim also discovers an alternative to central heating with his hot TV! The usual exciting resources and events in the show notes from TWiGS, Environment Variables and the Green Software Foundation.
The Week in Green Software: Calculating Software Emissions with Navveen Balani & Srini Rakhunathan
March 22, 2023 • 36 MIN
Host Asim Hussain is joined by two of only a handful of people to try and calculate the emissions of software; Navveen Balani of Accenture and Srini Rakhunathan of Microsoft. In this episode of TWiGS Navveen does a deep dive into the processes behind Accenture’s use of the SCI Specification to calculate a measure to track and, ultimately, reduce the carbon emissions of one of its internal reference applications. Asim also quizzes Srini on the upcoming CarbonQL project by the Green Software Foundation which Srini is leading. We also get some links to great resources (particularly for UX folk) and some exciting event news!
The Week in Green Software: Web 3.0 and Energy Standards for Software
March 15, 2023 • 41 MIN
In this the latest episode of The Week in Green Software, Chris Adams is joined by first time Environment Variables guest Tammy McClellan and regulars Anne Currie and Asim Hussain. They discuss the concept of greenwashing; what it is and how companies can avoid it, and why green IT is no longer an option for the tech sector. They cover various statistics about the environmental impact of data centers and cloud computing, the importance of optimizing code and algorithms to reduce emissions, and how developers can’t just rely on hardware to reduce emissions. The hosts also touch on some valuable resources to further your knowledge in the world of Green Software - links below!
The Week in Green Software: Greenwashing
March 8, 2023 • 33 MIN
In this the latest episode of The Week in Green Software, Chris Adams is joined by first time Environment Variables guest Tammy McClellan and regulars Anne Currie and Asim Hussain. They discuss the concept of greenwashing; what it is and how companies can avoid it, and why green IT is no longer an option for the tech sector. They cover various statistics about the environmental impact of data centers and cloud computing, the importance of optimizing code and algorithms to reduce emissions, and how developers can’t just rely on hardware to reduce emissions. The hosts also touch on some valuable resources to further your knowledge in the world of Green Software - links below!
The Week in Green Software: How Green is Your Cloud?
March 1, 2023 • 50 MIN
TWiGS returns this week with host Asim Hussain being joined by (now guest) Chris Adams. They talk about the environmental impact of the cloud and while some of the big cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google Cloud, have introduced initiatives designed to increase the sustainability of individual data centres and reduce their overall carbon footprints, will it be enough to help reduce carbon emissions produced by cloud computing? They also cover Microsoft’s Surface Emissions Estimator and a recent paper surveying the factors that influence the emissions of machine learning.
The Week in Green Software: Generative AI & The Environment, The Cloud & DevSusOps
February 23, 2023 • 46 MIN
The Week in Green Software (or TWiGS) is back with a new format! This time host Chris Adams is joined by Anne Currie and Asim Hussain to talk about news about AI and the environment (with a particular focus on Chat GPT and Bing), the environmental impact of the cloud, the Corporate Sustainable Software Market report, and some exciting opportunities to explore, learn, and contribute to green software.
The Week in Green Software: Green Software Legislation
January 18, 2023 • 42 MIN
For our first episode of 2023, Ismael Velasco looks at the dense legislative landscape around green software and technology and energy regulations. Everything from France’s Digital Environmental Footprint Reduction Legislation to the UK’s Greening Government ICT and Digital Services Strategy; Ismael will help you make sense of it all!
Community Clouds and Energy Islands with Dawn Nafus and Laura Watts
December 5, 2022 • 43 MIN
We’ve moved from a more decentralised internet running on centralised power, to a more centralised internet running on more decentralised power. Is this the only computing model of the future? What would a decentralised internet running on decentralised power look like? We see hints of what this looks like at the edge of the internet, but also the edge of the grid, and this is an area our two guests Dawn Nafus of Intel and Laura Watts of the University of Edinburgh have spent quite a lot of time researching. They join host Chris Adams in this episode of Environment Variables as they explore community clouds, datacentres, energy regulation, projects on the Islands of Orkney and the book that they’re working on together!
Fact Check: Sara Bergman & Software Carbon Intensity
November 18, 2022 • 54 MIN
Welcome to Fact Check on the Environment Variables podcast! Fact Check is a new segment where we take a deeper dive into the bigger questions in a one-to-one discussion with a special guest. Host Ismael Velasco, is joined by EV regular Sara Bergman, a senior software engineer at Microsoft, and an individual contributor to the Green Software Foundation’s Software Carbon Intensity project. They discuss Sara’s green software journey, the Software Carbon Intensity ISO standard, why it excludes carbon offsets, and fact checking what that tells us about offset-based green software claims, from Google to Blockchain.
The Week in Green Software: Disintegration vs Integration
November 10, 2022 • 50 MIN
This Week in Green Software Episode, host Ismael Velasco takes you through the recent key events and happenings in the world of green software. He outlines a range of reports coming out from The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, IPCC, UNEP, UNFCCC, IEA and many other acronyms to boot! He also highlights huge positive (and negative) changes in Big Tech and how you can be part of the crest of the wave of change in green software.
The Week in Green Software: An Introduction
October 24, 2022 • 50 MIN
Welcome to our first episode of The Week in Green Software hosted by Ismael Velasco. This new segment on The Environment Variables Podcast will be a bite size smorgasbord of news, events, resources and tools that will help you discover how to get involved in the world of software-focused climate action. Check out the links below for all the resources mentioned in this podcast!
From Carbon Aware to Carbon Intelligent
August 8, 2022 • 48 MIN
In this episode of Environment Variables Chris Adams is joined by Colleen Josephson of VMWare, Philipp Wiesner of TU Berlin and Sara Bergman of Microsoft as they discuss the opportunities with making first carbon aware and then carbon intelligent computing. Variability, curtailment, disaggregation, 5G, 6G (!), delay-tolerant networks, intermittent computing, IoT and even a short segue about Raspberry Pi’s all make an appearance in this action-packed episode!
How do we Teach Green Software?
July 25, 2022 • 42 MIN
The future of Green Software lies in education. In this episode host Chris Adams is joined by Luis Cruz of TU Delft and Sara Bergman of Microsoft as they discuss how to teach and learn to make Green Software. With Luis’ unique insight as a professor, he is able to bring us up to date with pedagogical approaches that are laying the groundwork for future software engineers.
Accessibility and Green Software
July 11, 2022 • 31 MIN
This episode is taken from a recent panel discussion from the Green Software Foundation’s Global Summit of 2022. EV regulars, Chris Adams and Asim Hussain are joined by Anne Currie, Chris Lloyd-Jones and Elise Zelechowski as they discuss Accessibility and Green Software. What’s driving interest in Green Software? What ESG principles are being adopted by companies and what is needed to drive accountability and accessibility in this sphere? Where does the main driver for Green Software come from within an organisation?
The Price of Oil and Gas and Green Software
June 27, 2022 • 40 MIN
This week Asim Hussain and Chris Adams are joined by Sara Bergman of Microsoft and Henry Richardson of Watttime.org to discuss the current global surge in oil and gas prices. Why is the price of oil and gas so damn high at the moment? How does intermittency influence the price surge? Are high gas prices actually good for society as a whole? How does Green Software come into play? All this including a wrap-up of the Green Software Foundation Summit.
How does AI and ML Impact Climate Change?
June 13, 2022 • 40 MIN
This week Chris Adams takes over the reins from Asim Hussain to discuss how does artificial intelligence and machine learning impact climate change. He is joined by Will Buchanan of Azure ML (Microsoft), Abhishek Gupta; the chair of the Standards Working Group for the Green Software Foundation and Lynn Kaack; assistant professor at the Hertie School in Berlin. They discuss boundaries, Jevon’s paradox, the EU AI Act, inferencing and supply us with a plethora of materials regarding ML and AI and the climate!
How can Open Source Help Reduce Software Emissions?
May 30, 2022 • 46 MIN
In this episode Asim Hussain is joined by guest Chris Lloyd-Jones; Head of Open Technologies at Avanade and co-chair of the Open Source Working Group at the Green Software Foundation, and Dan Lewis-Toakley; Green Cloud Lead at ThoughtWorks and co-chair of the Open Source Working Group at the Green Software Foundation. They discuss the benefits of open source versus closed source, what tools are already out there and how open source can help reduce software emissions.
How do we make Green Changes in Organisations?
May 16, 2022 • 48 MIN
In this episode Asim Hussain is joined by guest Anne Currie; Tech Ethicist at Container Solutions and Lecturer in Tech Ethics at the University of Hertfordshire. What are the real factors that drive organisations choices around increasing efficiency within their organisation? What needs to happen for senior leaders to make sacrifices for sustainability? Can regulation push for real change inside organisations? They discuss the role of middle managers, developers and their love for ops people!
Carbon Aware Computing
May 2, 2022 • 39 MIN
In this episode Asim Hussain is joined by guests Scott Chamberlin formerly of Microsoft and Henry Richardson of Watttime as they discuss how time-shifting, location-shifting, curtailment and other terms are important to Carbon Aware Computing. How can we build sustainable software that reduces the impact on the environment and how these decisions may just lie in the hands of the developers instead of the CSR teams.
Amazon's Customer Carbon Footprint Tool
April 11, 2022 • 44 MIN
In this episode Asim is joined by guests Chris Adams, Sara Bergman and Danielle Erickson and they discuss the impact that Amazon’s Customer Carbon Footprint Tool is having on the green software landscape. How do services like AWS affect climate change and what are the effects on the environment of these huge data centres? We also learn about how you can use heat from greenhouses to grow tomatoes!
Welcome to Environment Variables
April 7, 2022 • < 1 MIN
Join your host Asim Hussain on Environment Variables, a podcast from The Green Software Foundation, and a bunch of experts from varying software and tech fields. In each episode we’ll talk about the latest news regarding how to reduce the emissions of software and how the industry is dealing with its own environmental impact.